Progressive House Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) admitted her desire to see senators abolish the filibuster was a partisan hope rather than a strictly principled position.
Speaking at a press conference with the House Progressive Caucus on Monday, Jayapal was asked how she weighed her plans to use the filibuster to protect Democrats’ policies after her party lost control of the White House, Senate, and likely the House, with her previous advocacy to get rid of it.
“Look, I think this is where it goes back to before this election, right? If we had had control of the trifecta and got rid of the filibuster to pass minimum wage, to pass paid sick leave, to pass many of these things that are passing abortion access, that are passing on ballot measures that are so popular, those aren’t going to the state legislatures either, those are going to the ballot, then I think we would have built some trust with the American people,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s in opposition at all. I think, obviously, would I be, am I championing getting rid of the filibuster now, when the Senate has the trifecta?” Jayapal continued. “No, but had we had the trifecta, I would have been because we have to show that government can deliver.”
Democrats have been shuffling toward reforming or completely removing the rule in the Senate that, in practice, requires 60 senators to pass most legislation. There are exceptions to the rule, most notably when it comes to approving political appointees such as judges.
However, because of their slim majority in the upper chamber, Democrats were unable to pass sweeping social reform or push through massive institutional changes such as increasing the number of Supreme Court justices.
Attempts to blow up the filibuster to give President Joe Biden the ability to appoint more justices to the high court or to codify abortion protections after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade were thwarted by Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). Both Democrat-turned-independent senators voted in favor of using reconciliation to push through massive spending plans but balked at calls to erode the rule protecting the minority party from getting trampled by a simple majority in the chamber.
“I have been consistent on the importance of protecting the 60-vote threshold, which we call the filibuster since I arrived at the United States Senate,” Manchin said in September when Vice President Harris voiced support for eliminating the rule. “This threshold stabilizes our democracy, promotes bipartisan cooperation, and protects our nation from partisan whiplash and dysfunction. I have always said: ‘if you can’t change your mind, you can’t change anything’ and I am hopeful that the Vice President remains open to doing just that.”
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The same day Manchin defended the filibuster against Harris’s attacks on it, Jayapal posted online that “The filibuster was originally created *by mistake* in 1806. Every day we don’t abolish it is just as big a mistake.”
Jayapal also has a section on her House website dedicated to eliminating the “Jim Crow filibuster.”
